Leader of Friends of IDF Scores $546K Package of Salary and Benefits

Last week, at the glamorous Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces held its annual gala dinner. The FIDF’s national director, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon smiled beside wounded soldiers flown in from Israel to encourage guests to open their wallets.

Gershon should be pleased: according to various reports, about $27 million was raised that evening.

It’s not clear whether the enthusiastic donors would be happy to know that their donations also fund the cost of Gershon’s impressive salary and benefits package.

Image: josh nathan-kazis

Security was extra-tight at the FIDF?s gala at the Waldorf-Astoria.

In 2011, that cost was $482,000, which combines his annual salary ($263,000 a year or about $22,000 a month – more than the vice president of the United States, for example); a bonus of $61,000; reimbursement for his apartment rental, which is worth more than $10,000 a month, and other benefits.

In 2010, the cost of his employment was even higher: $516,000, of which $242,000 was salary and $78,000 was a bonus. In 2012, the cost of his employment reached a peak of $546,000.

“The first time I was offered the position, I felt I didn’t want to take it because it was … going to people and asking them for money,” he told Globes in an interview last week. “I think I found the vision behind the job.”